


He loves The Game Because Of The Girl

by Shuffleway



Category: UCLA Soccer, Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 03:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14440278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shuffleway/pseuds/Shuffleway
Summary: This fictional masterpiece is set in modern day when a young man with a small chance, finds hope in love when he comes across a photo of someone he thinks he could be with for the rest of his life. He has a silly mind but a big heart. He's not a very brave man until he steps out of his comfort zone to try and meet the girl of his dreams who's whole world is soccer. He doesn't have anyone to talk to about his feelings so he sees fit to put it down in an online journal. This is his story.





	1. Discovering Her

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction obviously for the nature of this website. The background story is that someone comes across a journal of manuscripts from a guy who thought he should write down his feelings. I'm not a very good writer so if you come across mistakes, read what it means and not what it says. I am a fan of Jessie Fleming of course. I think she is a wonderful soccer player and has a beautiful feature in the game.

It’s late September of 2016 and I’m on a Naval Ship headed to Hong Kong for some Liberty with the US Marines. We finally make port and head out into the city for some fun. Me being a young man in 2016, I need to get the one thing every man wants that they most desire, which will satisfy their urges, yes you are correct, it’s wi fi. Which I get as soon as possible. I find myself in a Hong Kong McDonald’s downing some fries while I splurge my social media desires.  
The first person I look up on Instagram is a United States Women's National Team Soccer player, Morgan Brian because she is at the top of my list or should I say the top of the things running through my brain. I see photos I’ve missed of her since the last time I was connected to social media. After her, I look up another US Women's National Soccer player, Mallory Pugh. Again I witness that time being away has made me miss a few photos that she has posted of herself.  
About an hour goes by and I’ve looked through my Instagram and Facebook to satisfy the sweet sensation of being online once more. Before we go, I decide to look through some photos of UCLA’s Women’s Soccer team to see if Mallory Pugh is in them. I don’t seem to find any except for one of her in late August with the whole time on the field in a group photo. I then remember that she’s off training and playing for the U-20 Women’s National Soccer Team preparing for the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Papa New Gene. 

I decide to see if UCLA’s Women’s Soccer team has an Instagram page. Successful search. They do. I see that they have a shot of Mallory Pugh with a caption hoping her the best in the 2016 Olympics. A few photos after that, I notice she’s taking a picture with another gal about the same height as her. They’re at a UCLA Football game. The other gal has this sort of glow. A cute smile. Someone I think I would have a good time being around. See, weird silly thoughts go through my mind like that about girls I’ve never met and I can’t explain why but we push on.

The caption says something along the lines of “UCLA welcomes their two new freshmen, US National Player, Mallory Pugh(with her Instagram tagged) and Canadian National Player, Jessie Fleming(with her Instagram tagged)”. So naturally, I want to get to know her more. Find out more about her. My next move without thought is to click on that tag of her profile. It takes me to it. She’s official on Instagram. 10K followers. I become one of them. Not too bad. I tell myself right away, I still have a chance of dating her haha. Again I say this without knowing her at all. Her Instagram seems to run to a dead end with just artsy photographs that you would see a college student or what a hipster would take as they’re trying to create some type of portfolio. She has only but so little of her playing soccer. I move on to google. I type her name in the search bar. Her National Team portrait pops up first with her in the Canadian red. She has a cute smile and beautiful brown eyes. I have to get to know her more. Again I say “getting to know her” but in the end, I’m not really getting to know her or any other person through the World Wide Web except solely based off the information I can read and see. If you truly wanna get to know someone and understand them, you have to be with them.

Again, basic information pops up. I find out she’s 18 going to UCLA. She played for the U-17, U-20 and now the full Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team. She recently started in all the games for the Rio Olympics and is also the youngest player on the team. She’s the future of the Women’s Canadian National Soccer team.  
I move onto the next step. She’s not THAT big so I check to see if I can find her Facebook. She has one but it’s set to the most private setting you can make an account on. I send her a friend request out of anxiety. A couple days past and I realize sending her a friend request was a foolish mistake because if she sees the request and it scares her, she’ll probably block me from Instagram. I totally forget that there’s YouTube and she’s on the National level of Soccer. There has to be footage of her. I type her name into the search bar of the YouTube. A couple videos pop up of her face and name with the title of the videos. I click on the first one. She begins to speak. Has a cute voice. I immediately recognize a Canadian accent. Not a strong one but one that can be pulled out. I find myself looking at all of her videos. She doesn’t have many but enough to keep me happy for now. Help me. I’m weird. In this point in my life, she is my main focus on women crushes. I try to stay up to date with her soccer career. Hoping she adds photos to her Instagram and statuses to her Twitter(yes I forgot to mention I started following her on Twitter). I always wait for more videos of her to be uploaded to YouTube. Right now, I’m so hyped about her, I wanna see her in person even if I don’t get to say hi. I’m planning to drive either to UCLA or San Jose to watch her play soccer in person.

November 2016- Right now, we’re currently in the post PAC-12 conference 2016 season where the tournament is going on. The Championships will be played in San Jose and UCLA won against Seattle University in the first round of matches. They’ll be heading to West Virginia to play the next round which will be held Friday, November 18th. I hope I can watch it on tv or stream it. 

December 2017- So time has passed since I’ve discovered Jessie Fleming and one thing had dawned on me. I hope in my heart, it’s not true but she might be gay if not bi. It’s not like I dislike gay people, it would just mean that I don’t have a chance with her. I hope that isn’t true which is stupid because I’ll never have a chance of ever being with her romantically but in my fantasy world, I just hope for the best. My goal by going to the game in San Jose at Avaya Stadium is to watch her play in person and get a photo taken with her. Being able to see her play in person instead of on a 12" screen halfway around the world will make my day.


	2. Stepping Up to the Plate?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So time has passed and the young man has decided to go for it, step out of his comfort zone and go to one of Jessie's matches. This is his story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So each chapter is really short because it's only covering one experience the guy had. At least you won't get bored. Yes I know "stepping up the plate" is a baseball term but he is emotionally doing just that and taking a chance.

November 14th 2017-So it’s been a minute since I’ve talked about Jessie but here’s the update. I went to 3 of her home games at UCLA where she plays for college. I have gotten my picture taken with her once and we had the shortest conversation any two people could have. At this match, they set a signing table up for the team to be able to sign photos for any of the fans. I go to the signing table where the whole UCLA Soccer team is signing autographs on a team photo that was handed to the fans at the entrance for free. I only go through the whole line so I can get a photo with Jessie. I make my way down the line and make my way towards the end where Jessie is sitting. I get more and more nervous every step I take towards her. My heart beats faster and faster after every player signs my poster. I finally get to her. I have been waiting for this moment since I first laid my eyes on her in that picture with Mallory Pugh when I was in Hong Kong over a year ago. I’m really nervous, almost speechless but then I find the words to come out as I hand her my poster…”can I get a photo?” As she signs my poster and passes it to her fellow teammate and says “ya sure”. She gets up, I hand my phone to my friend Kenny Craftmen and we both stare into the camera. It felt a little awkward because I thought I was making it awkward on how I was acting around her. After I got my phone back, I immediately put it in my pocket without seeing the photos and asked her quite nervously, 

Narrator: “Hey are you going to be in the match in November?”(Referring to the one against the US)  
Jessie: “Ya the one in San Jose?”  
Narrator: “Ya”  
Jessie: “Ya”  
Narrator: “Cool, I’ll be there too” (like no shit Sherlock).  
Fellow Teammate: “Me too”  
Narrator: "Wait? what? you’re playing?”  
Fellow Teammate “Ooo no…?”(As she looked at Jessie). 

That was my last and only encounter with her. I hope in the future I can see her again up close and personal. She seems like a very humble person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for sticking through it. I know it's not the best of things but you getting this far, means a lot to me. I hope you've enjoyed it so far. For those of you who are fast readers unlike me, sorry that the chapters are short. Stay frosty.


	3. One Goal-Taking the Penatly Kick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The young man HAS to see Jessie again so you find him heading back to another one of her matches but with a comrade. The narrator is so nervous, that he feels like he's stepping up for his team to take that penalty kick for the winning point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay strong and read it haha.

November 27th 2017- It’s time for an update to all you people. My wish came true. Last time I told you I hoped to see Jessie again. I did! I went to her last home game at UCLA where she and her team played against Princeton for the quarter finals in the 2017 college cup. They won and are making their way to the semi finals in Orlando. I wish I could go to that game and the Championships as well but unfortunately not. So at the end of this game, my buddy Will Smith and I headed down to the soccer field for one goal, to get our photos taken with two of the players. One of them of course being Jessie Fleming herself and for my buddy, he wanted his picture taken with the Teagan Micah. She’s UCLA’s goal keeper. She’s also Australian. So we went down to see what we could actually work out. 

We waited for about 10 minutes for them to break from their post game team meeting that they were having on the field. There were probably 50 to 60 other people waiting in the same spot where we were but I could tell that most of them were family members of the soccer players. I didn’t want to stick out too much so we stood in the back. While I waited, I put down the expensive coke I had. A few minutes later I noticed this kid shaking it up and opening the cap to see the soda explode slowly inside the bottle just enough to entertain him but not enough to cause a mess. I didn’t care because I was too focused on getting a photo with Jessie. Next thing I noticed was that the players finally broke from their team meeting from which felt like hours but was only minutes. They all started heading over to their family and friends getting gratitude of their hard earned win from that night. I looked around and the first person I noticed was Teagan Micah. The gal my friend wanted a picture with. I told him to go to her so he could get his picture but he was too nervous so I took the initiative to head over in her direction but I got stopped in my tracks because I saw the most gorgeous gal on that field that night, Jessie Fleming heading my way. I didn’t know what to say cause I was too nervous. I was about to ask her for a picture when another gathering of admirers crossed paths with her and asked for photos. After that I was about to take my turn to ask when who I only assumed could have been her parents came up to her, hugged her good job and they walked away so I thought I lost my chance. I stood there in disappointment as I lost sight of her. I looked at my friend and told myself “grow some fucking balls and get the damn picture, this is your last chance”. 

So my friend and I made our little journey through the crowd panning out what we came to do. Sooner than I thought with the fast beating of my heart, I spotted Jessie about 20 feet away from me by herself on the track next to the field, so I took the chance and called to her. 

Narrator: “Hey Jessie, can I take a picture with you?” 

She looked over   
“ya sure” 

So I walked on over, gave my phone to Smith, put my arm around her shoulder as she put her arm around my back. In that moment, I have never felt my heart beat so fast, so hard. I couldn’t hear anything and had received what everyone calls tunnel vision. Time slowed down as Smith was struggling to take the picture. Even though it was only about 10 seconds, it felt like 10 minutes. He finally got the picture off and all I could mutter to her was  
“Thank you, good job”. 

I wanted to tell her my whole life story about how amazing I thought she was but those were the only words I was emotionally, mentally and physically able to find. She said “thanks” and walked away. I wanted to say more but I didn’t want to make it awkward. I was given my chance. Now we moved on through the crowd that got smaller over the few minutes we were down on the track next to the field. I spotted the Teagan Micah. She was taking her photos with other people and then when I saw an opening I called out to her 

“Hey Teagan, can my friend take a photo with you?” 

And she looks over and says   
“ya sure”(In her amazing Australian accent) 

Smith walks on over, he was very nervous as you could see. I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures as I counted up from 1, 2, 3. She walked off with her friends and Smith and I were excited as little school girls. Well maybe I was more excited but you get my point. I showed the photo I took of Smith and he said   
“Why the fuck am I not smiling?” Haha

Well People this is my last entry in regards to Jessie Fleming right now. It's funny since no one will ever see this. But it feels good to my thoughts down into words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well folks, that's it. It's all over. If you liked it, I'll add on to it, if not then whatever it's still lit my guys.

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it to the end of this chapter, I salute you. You are the true MVP for reading the whole thing. If you wish to comment, go ahead and do so. I would appreciate it if it was constructive criticism. I'm not a good writer at all by any means, I just thought it would be fun to post stuff out there. Tell me what your thoughts were on it and stay frosty.


End file.
